2000+ year old village

I went on a field trip to the oldest village in North America recently.  We were able to see a sod hut which was the original house of choice.  The one we were in was about 20 feet long, 2 rooms, about 4 feet high and supported by whale bone ribs instead of wood beams.  There are no trees out here.  They might get some driftwood from the river but not much.  People upstream also take those.

there were also mounds of dirt, rock at various places.  These were where people stored their food in the tundra.  It was frozen 2 feet down so they made a place to put whale meat.  This past year they only got 3 whales.  They like to get 5 for the village and store them in the huts so they can be used in the winter.

The most recent village there had wood houses.  They were houses from the 30s, 40s and 50s.  There were also a few metal buildings which were from a military base which had been set up around here back during the Korean war.  After the military left, the Tikigaq people dismantled the structures and took them to the village.  One metal building was used as a movie theater.  One of the speakers said she used to pay a quarter to see the movie.  She got the quarter by getting lemmings and selling them to people.

Archeologists have carbon dated items found to over 2000 years old.  There are two other older villages under water.  They are expected to be much older than 2000 years.  The waves here are so fierce at times that they don't think much is left of the older villages.

There is a cemetery which has a whale bone fence.  It is pretty big. It has expanded 5 times.

I saw saw a village site where 400 houses were located.  There is not much there now but archeologists said they were not whalers.

It was a very interesting day